| 14. Mandolin player, singer, and songwriter was born in East Tennessee. He started playing bluegrass mandolin when he was a boy and was playing in local bands by the time he was in high school. Since the late '80s he's been one of the most in-demand pickers in the business, and has played with some of the most progressive bands in the progressive bluegrass scene including the Lonesome River Band, Alison Krauss & Union Station, the bluegrass gospel band the Isaacs, Mountain Heart, and the Dan Tyminski Band. He's won the International Bluegrass Music Association's Mandolin Player of the Year award seven times and has played on countless bluegrass, country, and old-time music albums. One More for the Road is only Steffey's second album, but he comes across as a disciplined and generous bandleader sharing the spotlight with Dan Tyminski, Ronnie Bowman, and half-a-dozen other fine players. Steffey's original tunes are all killers, suggesting a bright future as a songwriter should he choose that path. "Deep Rough," one of the album's five instrumentals, is a traditional high lonesome showcase for Steffey's mandolin, Stuart Duncan's fiddle, and Ron Block's banjo. "What Gives You the Right" is a cheatin' song with one foot in traditional country and one in progressive bluegrass. Steffey's warm deep tenor is perfect for this tale of a marriage gone wrong. The traditional barn burner "Let Me Fall" has been done by almost every bluegrass band; Steffey's arrangement is taken at a vigorous tempo and features Tyminski's vocals, Duncan's fiddle, Ron Stewart on banjo,and Steffey's blazing mandolin. He sings lead on Red Allen's "Don't Lie to Me" and "Trusting in Jesus" a Ron Block tune Steffey first cut when he was with Union Station. He also backs Ronnie Bowman on Kristofferson's "Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends" laying back to let Bowman's heartfelt playing take the spotlight |
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